THE family of the Gelekeceni toddler who had been missing and whose corpse was yesterday retrieved from the Mbabane River along Ezulwini has two versions of his death.
Uvikelwe Maseko went missing while at his great-grandparents’ home at Gelekeceni on Wednesday.
A search that had yielded no results for the past five days eventually became successful when divers discovered his corpse trapped by a tree branch on the side of the river.
The two-year-old was under the care of his great-grandmother when he suddenly disappeared while playing in the yard.
His maternal grandfather, Sifiso Zwane, said most members of the family are confused about what could have happened to the child leading to the gruesome discovery of his body.
“We inspected his body and it looked intact on the outside with all his clothes still on, however, we cannot vouch that this was an innocent drowning incident,” he said.
Zwane had participated in the search since early in the morning together with other members of the community. He only abandoned the search shortly before 1pm, when the body was retrieved by police divers.
He mentioned that the child’s mother sounded convinced that the child may have walked to the river bank located about 75 metres from the homestead.
“My daughter was here earlier on, she insisted that Uvikelwe was capable of walking such a distance alone. She said sometimes he would take advantage of being alone and run around even towards the pathway,” he said.
When asked if the child would often go to the river with adult family members, Zwane responded in the affirmative, adding that they would carry him on the back each time they took him to the river.
Contrary to the mother’s version, other family members who were at the scene said the child was not fit enough to walk all the way to the river.
“Uvikelwe was born prematurely at six months, so he was a bit tiny for his age and there is no way he could have walked all the way down to the river,” said a female relative.
What seemed to further confuse the family is an event that unfolded on Thursday when a police sniffer dog was dispatched to investigate.
Zwane said the dog followed a pattern that suggested there could be another person involved.
He said the dog led them from the homestead to the river, then from the river through a shortcut path leading to the road, which a toddler could not have walked alone because it is bushy.
“From the bushy pathway, the dog went back to the river where it almost jumped into the water,” he said.
This has caused some relatives to suspect that someone pushed the child into the water.
The family said it has not discussed any funeral arrangements yet pending the outcome of a postmortem.
Acting Deputy Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Mazwi Ndzimandze said on physical inspection the police found no anomaly.
On the sniffer dog’s behaviour, Ndzimandze said, “While it is true that a sniffer dog assists in detecting scents, we may not really know what could be influencing its behaviour at each particular moment.”
Ndzimandze said it was too soon to tell when a postmortem would be done, also highlighting that there were determinant factors that warranted the conduction of such.
